


Unconditional Support

by Telaryn



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Conversations, Declarations Of Love, F/M, Guilt, Injury, Major Character Injury, Missing Scene, Negotiations, Season/Series 04, Surgery, Survivor Guilt, Trust, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 08:39:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10510224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: After 'Quake' is publicly connected to SHIELD again, but before Daisy agrees to officially rejoin the organization, she agrees to let Simmons operate on the residual damage she did to her arms while operating on her own.  Coulson tries to hold his own feelings in check as Daisy sets down her terms, determined to respect her choices, but in the end he's only partly successful.Luckily, Daisy's trust in him has never wavered.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Cousy RomFest 2K17. Day 5 - Prompt: Personal Space

Negotiations took over an hour, but once Daisy had made Coulson understand she was serious he had dutifully listened to everything she had to say and taken copious notes.

Ironically it was Simmons who had argued with her about her refusal to be drugged. “You can’t expect me to operate on that mess you’re carrying around without putting you under!” Daisy had assumed that whatever needed to be done could be done with a local anesthetic and told her friend so, but ultimately Coulson had sided with Simmons against her.

“Daisy agrees to general anesthesia, and Jemma agrees to do everything medically possible to get her back on her feet as swiftly as possible,” he intoned as he wrote, pitching his voice so that it easily overrode their argument. “Agreed?” he added, looking up at them at last.

“Agreed,” Simmons muttered, obviously having much more to say on the subject.

“Nothing that keeps me from leaving as soon as I can,” Daisy said, meeting Coulson’s gaze without flinching. “That’s my deal breaker.”

She thought for a moment that she saw grief in Coulson’s eyes at the implication she was going to leave again, but in spite of the casual tone he’d managed to set his expression was as inscrutable as she’d ever seen. “Understood,” was all he told her. Scribbling something at the bottom of the paper he’d been using to take notes, he slid it across to Simmons. “No deviations without my say-so.”

Daisy thought about arguing, but she would need somebody to speak for her in the event a medical decision needed to be made and she couldn’t make it. Coulson knew what her hard line was, and he hadn’t tried to argue her out of it. _Besides,_ she thought, regret welling up inside her at everything she’d been forced to leave behind, _I still trust you._

She probably always would.  
********************************  
 _”The media’s connected her to SHIELD now. We’re not just going to turn her loose again!”_

_“Daisy is not our prisoner, Director. If she decides to leave, that’s exactly what she’s going to do.”_

Coulson was arguing with somebody Daisy couldn’t see clearly and didn’t recognize. She struggled to sit up, to focus, but the effects of whatever they’d given her were still too strong.

_“Phil, I know you have feelings for her…”_

_“You and the rest of the base. That still doesn’t change what’s going to happen here, Jeffrey. If Daisy is determined to leave when she’s medically cleared, she’s leaving and you’ll go through me to stop her.”_  
**********************************  
When she woke the next time, the shadowy figure of the Director was gone. Coulson had taken a chair next to her bed, and even though she still couldn’t think clearly, Daisy could tell the last vestiges of pain from her injuries was gone. “I told you no drugs,” she said, trying to glare reproachfully at Coulson. “I let you put me out for surgery, but that was it. That was our…” Her voice trailed off as her body abruptly decided her tongue was too thick to speak anymore.

“I changed the deal,” Coulson said gently. His most neutral “men in black” expression was firmly in place as he raised her hand to his lips and lightly kissed her knuckles, but his eyes were so full of emotion Daisy wanted to cry. “Hate me if you want, but I couldn’t be a party to you continuing to torture yourself.” He waited a beat, and when she didn’t say anything or pull away, he wrapped his prosthetic hand around their joined ones.

“You’ve slept about eighteen hours,” he added, sensing her next question before she asked it. “You haven’t missed anything exciting, and Simmons tells me that your vitals are returning to normal across the board.”

“Everything’s fuzzy,” Daisy told him, trying once more to bring the world into focus, and giving it up eventually as a bad job. “What did you give me?”

“Standard morphine shot,” he admitted. “You’re on the down-side of your last dose, so the fuzziness should start clearing up.” Daisy felt a slight pressure on her skin as he squeezed her hand. “It’s up to you whether you want the next one.”

 _You stayed._ It was one of those weird intuitive leaps she got around Coulson – the times when they were so in sync with each other it felt like they were in each other’s minds. Daisy couldn’t have said _how_ she knew he’d been at her bedside the entire time she slept, but she was as sure of it as anything in her life right now. “I don’t want another one,” she said abruptly – her mouth engaging before she’d realized she was going to say anything.

It obviously wasn’t the answer Coulson wanted, but there was only a slight furrowing of his brow to betray his thoughts on the matter. “Your call,” he repeated, without argument or defense. “I know you have no reason to trust us right now.”

“I trust you,” she said, turning more fully towards him. “I heard what you said…to the director. Thank you.” There was so much more she suddenly wanted to say to him, but Daisy suddenly understood completely what people meant when they talked about words ‘sticking in your throat’.  
******************************  
 _”Phil, I know you have feelings for her…”_

 _“You and the rest of the base.”_

He hadn’t planned on Daisy hearing that, but Phil couldn’t deny that it had felt good for once in his life to step away from the tired joke of the two of them being the ‘worst kept secret’ on the base and own his feelings completely and without reservation. “I meant what I said,” he told her, watching as her eye-blinks gradually grew slower and longer. “You’re not a prisoner. Nobody’s going to try and force you to do anything you’re not willing to do.”

Agreeing to the additional morphine had been a risk, but Coulson still felt faintly nauseous when he remembered the scans Simmons had shown him. “She’s punishing herself,” was the only thing he’d been able to say in those first horrible moments. “She thinks what happened with HIVE was her fault.” He’d suspected that was the case all along, but seeing for himself that Daisy’s guilt feelings literally ran bone deep had given him the courage he needed to move against her wishes in this one area.

It was worth her hating him if it meant he could absolve her of the pain for at least a little while.

“Sleep,” he urged, as it became obvious that she still wasn’t quite ready to return to the field. “Another couple of hours, and I’ll talk to Simmons about getting you back on your feet. I promise.”

He started to pull free, intending to let her sleep, but Daisy’s hand tightened abruptly on his in a surprisingly strong grip. “Stay,” she urged, when he met her glassy-eyed gaze. “Please. Feels safer with you here.”

Heart aching at the idea that she still trusted him after everything, Coulson settled back into position. Reaching down with his prosthetic hand, he gently brushed her hair back off her face. “Here as long as you want me.”


End file.
